On the Campaign Trail - March 31

As hundreds of thousands of dollars circulate in the Democratic race for the 6th Congressional District seat, one candidate said that he is proud to stay out of the money race.

In a campaign email, Ron Little, running a low-budget campaign, wrote that it could cost $90,000 to reach half of the people in the 6th District one time through the mail, so he’s using social media, email, local newspaper ads, word of mouth and door-knocking.

“I cannot, in good conscience, partake in these gross expenditures — not in the middle of a recession, and not when two counties in the district have unemployment rates at or above the national average of over 8.3% and a third county is at 7.2%. AND certainly not when 1 in 4 children in two counties in this Congressional district live below the poverty line. In many ways this is a prime example of what is wrong with the American political system,” Little said in an email.

“From the beginning I have said, that if I had $100,000 to put towards this campaign I would host several ‘all you can eat dinners’ in all the counties of the district and make sure all the food banks were stocked before I would think to use the money on the political campaign.”

“Roscoe Bartlett and I have worked side by side to cut spending, repeal ObamaCare and pass my plan to balance the budget,” Ryan said in a news release.

Bartlett is running for an 11th term. He has seven opponents in Tuesday’s Republican primary.

Pillows, helmets for health care

Why did Republican Congress candidate Peter James have two pillows strapped to his hips at an AARP/MarylandReporter.com forum at Montgomery College on Sunday? And why was he wearing a shiny silver helmet?

During a discussion on health care, James acted out his satire.

“The big thing is cost. So, anybody over 65 is going to be mandated to wear these,” he said, gesturing to the pillows, “or receive a $1,000 fine. And most of the injuries occur in the homes, so, everybody, we’re going to come through your homes and make sure you got your helmet on.

“And actually this has the extra benefit of keeping the cellphone from giving you brain cancer,” James noted, showing how he couldn’t get a cellphone too close to his head with a helmet in the way.

— Andrew Schotz

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“On The Campaign Trail” will run periodically. Send campaign news and tips to Andrew Schotz at andrews@herald-mail.com.